MaKey MaKey Group

Continuing the discussion from Introduce Yourself:

@GeoMouldey and anyone else using MaKey MaKey,

I also have a MaKey MaKey.

I try to help out at the MaKey forums. I am still learning Arduino but might be able to help with some things, let me know if I can help anyone find resources, answer questions, etc. Also, looking to collaborate on community resources for MaKey like reprogramming tutorials that cover all operating systems. I need to clean my Windows 8 tutorial up, Mac is officially supported for reprogramming, and Ubuntu has an awesome guide by forum user hillscottc. Any other operating systems greatly appreciated, especially Windows 7 (home/pro) and RaspberryPi. Could also use more warm, helpful faces over at the 'Welcome' category.

Who all has a MaKey or has tried one, etc.?

Share some of your projects/thoughts/ideas/etc

Also, consider sharing your projects and ideas at the MaKey forums

One of my favorite projects so far has been a cardboard finger skateboard arena my son and I made. We tied the MaKey MaKey into a Scratch project using pressure-sensitive switches of homebrew design and included LEDs.

I've used MakeyMakey with my kids during the holidays. So far we have made custom remote controls for computer games, variations on the Banana Piano and a large Dance Dance step pad.

I have a makey makey. I've done a couple of very simple scratch programs with it for my daughter. Right now I'm thinking of a way to work it into a sort of interactive wall projected display that I'm thinking of doing.

Yesterday I was in a class (12-13yrs) and we had an Invent-A-Game-Session using Scratch, MakeyMakey (gamecontroller) and if they had time; analog output with Lego Wedo. So two girls went to the kitchen, got a couple of potatoes. Painted them in the same color (I didn´t even imagine that you actually could paint potatoes) as their Sprite in the game. Today we are going to have a small "GameCon" showing another class what we have done. I´m trying to make a short film about their Makerstyle efforts, I will share it if it´s interesting. It´s so much fun.

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I just purchased several Makey Makeys and plan to use them in an after-school program starting in April. I was planning to use them with Scratch and see where my students would take them. I would love ideas to have as possible springboards.

I run a Makey Makey Exploratory for 7th and 8th graders. It meets once a week for 30 minutes. Not enough time! The kids love it! I just run around and get them stuff. They say "I wonder if..." a lot. And I respond with "Try it." The kids were amazed when four or five of them held hands and the last person touched the Playdough and the keyboard worked. They want to find out if there is a limit to the number of people the signal can go through.

I love those "exploring sessions". But I agree; 30 min seems a little bit short of time. In the picture you could almost see what is going on in their heads. Lovely

Yesterday we tried 15 kids holding hands and the signal went through without problems. It was the end of our MakeMakey-Scratch-LegoWedo-session. But it would be a great teaser to start with, it raises so many questions. Maybe next time...

I collaborated with a Grade 6 science class when they borrowed my MaKey MaKey kit. They used it mostly to make music. We blew the school director's mind when we used our own bodies to play music. Lots of fun, but I wish we'd had more time to explore the possibilities.

Hello!What´s Makey? could you explain?

The best way to explain is giving you the source of Makey Makey

Hi all,
I made several projects with Makey Makey, musical instruments like MaMa Clarinet and MaMa Piano and some simulation projects like Anti Theft Alam. In the following link you can see how it works and you can download tutorial on how to create it
http://www.thinglink.com/scene/448882039148511234

Great to see the directions you're exploring with MaKey MaKey and Scratch. @huttnerk mentioned springboards: You may have seen, the MaKey MaKey site now has some workshop guides.

For a local creative learning workshop we organized earlier this year, Eric Rosenbaum brainstormed a list of MaKey MaKey ideas called Beyond the Banana Piano (that's a Google doc: http://goo.gl/n7ptLE). I wrote them on index cards as prompts. He started the workshop by showing this video compilation of music examples, which set a playful and inventive tone. (You can also see Flickr photos from the workshop).

Of course, it doesn't have to be music-focused, as @skola2015 and the student project he shared demonstrates! Will be interested to hear how you're experimenting.

I haven´t tried MaKey Makey yet nor Arduino but I think I will hang out with you here in this group to see if it can get me started. I think I can inspire some of the kids in school to work on a project. Easily. I just need to find out a little bit more.

Would anyone be interested in a Google Hangout for this group? We could help show people like @eva_soderbergh and @geraldiux64 more about it, share projects, jam together in a MaKey band, etc

How to make a Water Sensor that works with Scratch and Makey Makey

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The sensor is made with paper clips. When a water drop hits the sensor, it creates a contact between the two sensor parts (water is electrical conductor). Connect one side to the ground and one to the SPACE (for instance). Than you have to create a prog/algorithm to detect the water and send alarm. Here is possible solution

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/17478917/

I made a small video (in swedish, I didn´t translate to english, I thought that it would be kind of a creative learning experience to try to figure out what they are saying ). You could ignore the spoken words...

Great, I really love it

Hi there!
I could write to you in Swedish but that would be rude
The movie is really interesting to watch and I´ve seen other projects like it. The thing is that I only have one hour every week with the kids (slöjd) and I´m sure that isn´t enough to get anything done, especially not when it´s new and unexpected/unknown for them.

How much time did you use for this project? Was it the whole class and one teacher or did you work together with someone else? How many MaKey MaKey would I need to invest in? Can I reuse them after the project is finished?

Many questions as you can see...

/Eva

You inspired me to come up with a game that can help to introduce new learners to MaKey MaKey in a short amount of time when time is limited such as in your case. This can help reduce any intimidation of a new and unfamiliar project and may make learning about MaKey MaKey and conductivity in general exciting and fun. You can see the project here:

http://www.makeymakey.com/forums/index.php?topic=15197.0

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After an initial introduction like this one, you can start to design more complex or more theme-focused projects with your learners for each new event. As @skola2015 suggests below, some projects can take more time and blocks of time will need to be set aside just for introducing learners to Scratch and creating Scratch projects for use with MaKey. This all depends on you and your class's needs and availability. You can also just jump right into Scratch projects and other programs already compatible with your MaKey such as the Scratch project shared above.

PS @eva_soderbergh You can use one or more MaKey. One MaKey can be shared between 18 individuals or teams to give each individual or team control over one keyboard key or mouse movement. With less groups each group would have access to more. More MaKeys means more people and more capabilities per person (also, less mess due to wires going all over the place). Also, yes, MaKey MaKeys are entirely reusable.

It´s ok. I really have to practise my english. Are you the only teacher interested? One hour a week isn´t enough. About 6-7 hours. + I introduced Scratch last semester about 90 min. The best way is probably to get another teacher involved (tech or science teacher, maths?)

Because my occupation as a ICT-pedagogical educator (IKT-pedagog) I made this together with two teachers, but I could do it alone, because the kids are awesome. I invested in 10 MakeyMakeys, 1 M. per group of 2 kids, I love the interaction between them. Reuse them, unplug the wires and go for another project.

I´ve seen some projects with handicraft, interactive drum T-shirt.

By the way, I love question, tons of them in my head....

If you want to buy in Sweden:
Lawicel-shop

I like this a lot. I am interested in getting my kids to do more than just make a keyboard to play games on the computer.

I currently have a high school class that is building an installation with Makey Makey, NeoPixels and Arduino. When they get it done post some of the experiences with it. We have the Blue tooth addon for MakeyMakey right now and are incorporating Soundbooth into it as well (great software!)

Thanks that would be great!!

A video would be really nice.

@geraldiux64 when is a good time for you?

I actually don't have much experience setting up Google Hangouts myself but I can try to host at least one for this Meet group. It looks like we also have a variety of time zones in here, maybe we can take turns hosting? That might give more people a chance at the helm of a hangout and more schedule flexibility. What do you all think?

Thank you for the shopping-tip. I will use this summer to get to know the MaKey MaKey a bit better. I try to keep up with this MOOC the best I can and save all the good advice I get here to when I have time to try it. I will also try to find someone that is interested to work with me, it´s a good advice.

Good to know I´m not the only one with lots of questions... Perhaps I´ll reach out for you on Twitter to, I´m @skapasaker

Thank you so much for the very committed answer. Since I´ve never tried anything like this it will take time to process, I think I´ll have to get me a MaKey to try myself first. Maybe I´m a bit out of line since textile craft is my subject to teach? I think I need to find a way to motivate the connection before I launch it with the kids.

And I am @skola2015 and following you.

Take a look att Leah Buechley (MIT, surprised?) and her projects with tech and handicraft. So cool.

And if you use the Makey Makey, there are two outputs for leds. Plus take a look at the stuff in the Adafruit e-Store

Leah Buechley

Maybe this is for you...

I'll make sure to have a video and lots of links once it's all done. I'm pretty excited about their progress already.

Oh this is so cool!
And actually today I found two teachers at my job who was interested in trying this out after the summer...

Just need some time to think

Yes ,That would be fine because I had no available time it´s hard for me to have the meeting MIT group so i only watch the videos

Sorry I couldn´t answered I was sick but I´m doing better the time would be fine at night I´m free at 8 p.m in Guadalajara México.

It looks like our Daylight Savings Times might be different. It looks like you might switch to Daylight Savings Time April 6th, but I have already switched to DST in my area.

If we try before April 6th, that'd put us at 2:00 AM UTC/GMT which would be 8:00 PM your time. If we try for April 6th or after, let me know if 2:00 AM UTC/GMT would still work for you or if you would want a different time.

Let's settle on a good date, I should be free except for 3/29 (tomorrow night) or 4/1 (next Tuesday night). Anyone here will be welcome to join us, and maybe we can figure out how to schedule the next one for others' needs.

@geraldiux64 If you will go ahead and pick a day coming up such as Sunday night I will be glad to try and set something up for us

PS glad you are feeling better!

Hi All!
I am a little late to this thread, but regardless I wanted to reach out.
I'm currently developing a one input / d.i.y. derivative of the MaKey MaKey.

I've been working at the Free Library of Philadelphia for the past year and am doing this work/research as my thesis at the University of the Arts. (Can the library and its participants make their own low-cost/accessible learning hardware?) This formed out of a realization that my kids(participants) were not taking ownership of their tools and were clueless/curious as to how the MM worked(also see cost).

I haven't really let the cat fully out of the bag, but will be sharing my source code, documentation, and resources over the next few weeks if anyone is interested. I also haven't really posted anything to the MaKey MaKey forums as someone said they contribute to earlier in this tread(probably should do that as well).

I'd be more than happy to talk with folks here about MM projects/stuff if y'all are down for some G+Hangouts etc.

At our school we've tinkered around with Makey Makey at our lunchtime makerspaces and as part of European Week. The collaboration to create musical stairs and a dance mat pacman controller was amazing. Synthesizers are great fun utilizing alumni foil, conductive thread and cardboard boxed hooked up to Femur or GarageBand. I would love to change the keys, but yet to try!

Master Control Panel (DIY) + MakeyMaky + Scratch = Fun & Learn

kids play a Scratch game using a DIY Master Control Panel via Makey Makey board

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The two hands on the panel are connected to the ground (for left-handed and right-handed players). To play, one real hand touches the "hand" and the other hand touches one of the squares in the middle that are connected to single specific letters

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Safety pockets are just pockets to contain the plugs :)

Click here to see other pictures

Just saw on the forums.. MaKey MaKey's booth is recruiting awesome Bay Area MakerFairers. If you are going to be at MakerFaire San Mateo May 17-18 and are interested in joining up, the Joylabz team has posted info on how to get more details here:

http://www.makeymakey.com/forums/index.php?topic=15230.0

Looking for help here. I created a P2PU course on how to reprogram the MaKey MaKey:

https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2119/reprogramming-makey-makey/

If you are new to MaKey and/or Arduino, what are your thoughts? Is it intimidating? Too confusing? Inviting? What would you change, or are there additional steps you'd like to see? Any content you would like to see covered more in-depth? Are the activities/badges appropriate, or would you change them up? How, if so?

If you have already reprogrammed your MaKey and/or already experienced with Arduino IDE, what are your thoughts? What would you change?

Does anyone here want to help me build this course? It is still a Work-In-Progress. My personal opinion is that the course should lean more towards peer-based (more than it is currently, I think).

Thanks!

Here is the video of our Makey Makey art installation. I have more pictures too but I'll have to upload them soon.

Nice. What program did you use for the loops?

We used SoundPlant and then downloaded loops from various sources. I found Looperman was a good site as well as just using garage band to make sure the beats per minute were the same.

Mark